Don't you just hate it when that drop-dead gorgeous 65/66 Mustang of yours won't start? Or when you turn on the radio and the turn signals start flashing? If you have any questions that you think I might be able to help you with, or, if I have posted something that still doesn't seem to be as clear as it could be, please feel free to ask.

Hello

There is a very large class of people that own 65/66 Mustangs that, as far as I can tell, anyway, have been, for the most part, ignored entirely. They don't really want that 100 pt. show car that is so nice and was soooo expensive that they're afraid to drive it, they also don't want to make their car capable of achieving warp factor three. They just want this car that they dearly love to be able to cruise around smoothly and reliably, without having it dump them out on the side of the road or have it start making weird noises or belching out big clouds of funky-smelling smoke. And I think, truth be told, that this is by far the largest class of Mustang owners. They take their car to some technician when what they actually need is a mechanic, and this, frequently, does not work out very well at all for the owner. They don't want to re-engineer the entire car, they just want someone to fix what broke. These are the people that I am trying help out with this blog. Some problems require a little bit of back and forth, as in, "Try this." "I tried that and it didn't change anything."" Oh. well, you probably need to try that." " I tried that and it helped, but it still isn't quite right." "Now you need to try this...." If you go to http://www.allfordmustangs.com/ and then go to the classics forums, you will be able to do that with a pretty hefty gathering of some very knowledgeable people that also happen to be very friendly. None of that ridiculous one-upmanship, no flaming or abuse, none of that stuff. Just good, solid advice from people that know what they are talking about.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Must-have tools / Volt meter

A question that comes up on a fairly regular basis is "What tools will I need to work on my old Mustang, other than basic hand tools?" So, I'll start posting tools that I have found to be extremely useful, and, at the very top of that list is the volt meter. The electrical systems in these cars were extremely reliable when the cars were new, but, 50 years of "I don't care, just fix it" have caused these poor cars to experience all sorts of electrical weirdness. Plus, there is the simple fact that, after a few decades of reliable service, it is not strange for a component like a headlight switch, turn signal switch, etc... to fail. It is not even possible to over-emphasize how important a volt meter is for tracking down these types of 'issues'.

My volt meter would probably be considered kind of old-school, but, it would have been cutting edge back when these cars were new. I cut the probe ends off of the leads and put alligator clips in their place, which simplified things tremendously. This way, you can just clip the negative lead onto a good ground before you crawl up under the dash.